Quantic Dream may be responsible for some of the most polarized games in the industry. Many critics have applauded their titles for daring to take video game narrative into territories that most developers dare not. Others have accused their games of sensationalizing serious and mature subjects in order to provoke an emotional response.
Many narrative-heavy games from developers such as Telltale present players with hard moral choices, but the basic outcome of the plot rarely deviates or changes based on your decisions. Conversely, many of Quantic Dream's games have largely different outcomes for the characters that you control.
Their next game aims to use this same design philosophy to explore a story about human-like androids called "Detroit Become Human."
'My name is Conner'
At the start of the demo, the player takes control of a man in a building with SWAT members. The man is immediately met with pleas for help from a distraught mother. But when she takes a closer look, she realizes that the man she's talking to is an android. Her desperation turns to anger when she admonishes the police for sending an android to save her daughter. As you make your way into the crime scene, your character introduces himself as Conner and asks for info on the android who has taken a little girl hostage. However, the officer rudely rebukes Conner and tells him that if he can't save the hostage, then the SWAT team will take care of the situation for him.
Utilizing Conner's forensic science abilities is pretty neat. Scanning environments, recreating murder scenes and piecing together the events that led to this android's breakdown give players new dialogue options and hints to address the situation.
Eventually, the situation escalates to the point where Conner must finally go out to the balcony and confront the android who has a little girl at gunpoint.
It's here that you can use the information you've learned from the evidence in the house to convince the android to surrender. You can try to calm him down by expressing sympathy for the events that drove him to this point, you can try to trick him into letting his guard down and proceed to shoot him, or you can sacrifice yourself to save the girl.
The demo does a good job of making you feel like your choices and actions matter. There are variable outcomes; both Conner and the girl can live and die based on your decisions.
Release date
"Detroit Become Human" is slated for a release in 2018.
